The SLA Accelerator is a 3 month program designed to identify, support and fund the next generation of Africa's brightest entrepreneurs. This year we're looking for entrepreneurs with businesses from the Agribusiness, Retail & E-Commerce, Technology, Creative and Beauty industries.

3 months of hands-on support and coaching

Direct access to Africa's best minds

Opportunity to win money for your business

Opportunity to pitch to a room full of investors

Media attention to raise your business profile

2017 Accelerator Cohorts

GTB Retail Cohort

This cohort is open to entrepreneurs building businesses in the Retail & E-Commerce industry in Abuja.

Step 1: Put together a top-notch application package, ace the semi-final interviews and get selected by the SLA team. You can find tips and advice here.

Step 2: Spend 1 week with the SLA team being trained in business skills and getting access to some of Africa’s top business minds.

Step 3: Spend the next weeks implementing the lessons learned, meet with the other members of your cohort to learn together and watch the results roll in. You’ll have access to the SLA team for any help or guidance you may need.

Step 4: Investor Dinner! Present your business to a room filled with investors and media. No joke: Previous SLA entrepreneurs have been featured on Forbes and CNN. They’ve gone on to raise almost $1mn. A lucky few even got to pitch to Aliko Dangote himself.

Step 5: The top entrepreneur will walk away with cash money for their business. The others will have received 3 months of intensive support and may well hook a few investors in the process!

SLA Accelerator is in partnership with the Work in Progress! Alliance, OCP, Guaranty Trust Bank, Cointreau and Intel.

The Work in Progress! Alliance is focused on unlocking the economic potential of young women and men in Egypt, Nigeria and Somalia. The project aims to enable them to generate sustainable and living incomes – by finding regular employment or starting enterprises. Alliance partners include Oxfam, VC4Africa and Butterfly Works.

As the exclusive caretaker of the world’s largest phosphate resources, OCP has always had a deeply rooted commitment to protecting global food security, through our role in sustainably increasing agricultural productivity. This core value is embodied in our entire OCP team, inspiring our vision and empowering our team to work, innovate and deliver a shared benefit for the world’s population.

Guaranty Trust Bank is recognized as one of the most profitable and well-managed financial institutions in Africa for providing quality service, ethics, professionalism, integrity, innovation and internationally accepted corporate governance standards.

Cointreau is an internationally recognized and consumed brand of triple sec alcohol that has been established for over 160 years. Behind the name of Cointreau lies far more than a simple liqueur...Cointreau is a family, a history, a specific expertise, a unique relationship with nature, and the meticulous work of Master Distillers.

Intel designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world's computing devices.